a peek into my week

You would think when you move to a 3rd world country, life would slow down a little, but it's just become a different kind of busy. Sooooo many things here are soooooo different that some days it's hard to believe we're even living in the same world, but at the same time, so much of life remains the same. Yesterday marked 7 weeks in Haiti, and for the most part, things have settled into a 'normal' routine.

Monday mornings start with a devotional at 7:15 am, followed by staff meetings. For students, classes start at 9:00 am on Mondays (school starts at 8:00 am the rest of the week). High school students have a total of 7 classes which are 55 minutes long, and they have a full hour for lunch. Each class only meets 4 days a week and some classes meet at a different time each of those 4 days (physics is at 2:00 on Monday, 1:00 on Tuesday, 9:00 on Thursday, and 10:00 on Friday). I teach all 4 of my classes on Monday and Friday, 3 classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and only 2 classes on Wednesday. I know it it sounds like I should have LOTS of free time, but I've had no problem filing those 'free' moments catching up on all the other stuff that I need to do (lesson plans, grading, writing quizzes and tests, searching for supplies, etc). Creole lessons are after school on Tuesday. We have chapel for an hour on Wednesday morning. I meet with my discipleship girls during lunch on Wednesday. I have a small group that meets on Wednesday afternoons for SAT math tutoring. I usually have other random kids drop by after school for homework help. We have dinner and bible study on Wednesday nights at our campus chaplain's house. Staff meetings at 7:15 on Thursday mornings and devotionals again on Friday. There seems to be plenty of other non-school things that also keep me busy. We usually walk to the store twice a week. We've had at least one night every week (in addition to Wednesday's bible study) that we either have people over for dinner or we're guests at someone else's table. We walk to school every day. Tuesday is laundry day. At least 3 days a week, we are (not so patiently) watching and waiting on EDH to kick on so we can fill our water tanks. Soon we'll be starting English lessons on Sunday at the church in Cite Soleil and another English class with some of the ladies in our neighborhood. Life is busy!!  :D

Weekend pictures

My brain has been running a million miles a minute lately... and unfortunately, it's not focusing on school stuff very well at the moment. So much good, so much hard... just SO MUCH! every day ... here are a few pictures from the weekend until I can sort things out and find words again...  Yesterday was hard (not because of where I was, but because of where I wasn't) and there have been more tears shed this weekend than I care to admit, but I was given an incredible gift of a weekend escape to the mountains, hot showers, great food, and some much needed fresh air

sunrise yesterday morning

sawing timber

laundry drying on the roof

the white tent serves as a school for about 80 kids during the week and a church on Sundays

Sundays are, by far, the hardest days. I was blessed with such an incredible church family back home, and I knew it would be hard to leave that behind. I've only been in Haiti 5 weeks so I'm still bouncing around visiting churches, looking for a 'home'. Sunday I had the opportunity to go to a church in Cite Soleil which is the poorest slum in Haiti. The church is a humble concrete structure set between tin shacks and a trash filled sewer ditch. Pigs were swimming in the contaminated black water. Kids were wandering the streets. Neighbors were visiting in front of their pieced together homes. And somehow in the middle of all the messy, hard reality of Haiti, I once again felt completely at home among the poor and broken. This is the Haiti that stole my heart 3 years ago and this is the Haiti that I love.

this little guy grabbed my hand and didn't let go

he sat in my lap during church and held on tight

(then he found my camera and pushed all the buttons, changing settings that I'm still trying to fix) 

this group giggled and made faces across the isle 

I'm looking forward to hanging out with these kids again soon!